Students at Sunrise get firsthand look at how things were made generations ago

Fourth-grade students at Sunrise don’t have to wonder what it was like to live 200 years ago because they got a chance to experience some of it.
On Friday, Jan. 31, the fourth-graders attended the 18th Annual Read In at the school.
This year marked a change in format. For the first time in its history, the Read In was not an overnight event. Instead, students remained after school on Friday and stayed until 11 p.m.
The major theme of the Read In was on the Western Movement coinciding with the social studies unit the students are studying.
History makes a deeper impression on an individual when it can be experienced.
To set the mood, students met in the Sunrise Media Center to watch the movie, “The Wilderness Family.” No movie is complete without popcorn and a drink.
Immediately following the movie, students began the rotation of activity, perform and read.
The first activity was pioneer games, and involved “only a handkerchief and lots of energy” as teacher Mary Pettegrew said. The games played were “Drop the Handkerchief” and “Johnny, May I Cross Your Red, Red River?” Both games were great for allowing these ‘pioneer’ children to burn off some energy.
At 6 p.m., the teachers and parents slipped an activity in that was Not a pioneer experience (but they would have enjoyed this if it had been available) when the children were treated to McDonald’s meals.
Four more activities rounded out the evening as the students learned to make rope using yarn, home-made butter, a tin lantern and farmer hats for the boys and bonnets for the girls.
They even had the opportunity to learn to line dance and each group demonstrated their prowess at this, taking turns after each 30-minute activity.
Everyone kept track of the number of pages they read, and by the end of the evening each student, teacher and parent spent a total of two hours reading a total of 3,809 pages. Library Specialist Mindi Crook said this averages about 63 pages per minute for the 45 people that attended.
Sunrise faculty that participated included Mindi Crook, Linda Jeter, Lynnda Hawkins, Lynn Schumacher, Mary Pettegrew, and Pam Miller. Volunteer Susie Rose provided the activities.
Parents whose assistance and attendance lended to the success of the evening included Cheryl Davis, Deana Hayes, Wendy Coldwell, Carrie Knutter, Melanie Allwood, Tim Syphert, Tyson Hays, Kelly Pittman, Amy Miller-Moore and Jennifer Lathrop.

Photo: Boys and girls in early America knew of the importance of headwear, as illustrated by the straw hats and bonnets the students made and are modeling. (Submitted photo)